LAKELAND, FL (September 13, 2018) — Suncoast Credit Union SwantoberFest Lakeland will feature plenty of German cheer along with a variety of exciting games and competitions on Saturday, September 22, 2018. Old favorites and new exciting challenges await competitors. There are individual games along with a partner competition in the Outrageous Olympiad at the event. Participation in all the events is more important than ever because there are bragging rights on the line. The Games are open to all Suncoast Credit Union SwantoberFest Lakeland guests and are free to play.

The Mustache (& Beard) Competition is sponsored by three local barbers – Lakeland Barber Company, Mason Danger Beard Co, and Skully’s Mobile Barber Shop. There will be a number of categories to compete in, depending on your facial follicle preference. The pre-judging Qualification is at 6:00 p.m., followed by the Official Mustache Competition at 8:00 p.m. The categories for the Suncoast Credit Union SwantoberFest 2018 Mustache Competition are: Natural Mustache, Freestyle Mustache, Natural Goatee, Freestyle Goatee (whether it’s a Fu Manchu, Musketeer, or your own styled creation this category is for you), Natural Full Beard (this category is sure to draw heated competition) and, Freestyle Full Beard. Prizes include Deluxe Beard Kits, T-shirts, and barber services.

How long can you hoist? Join us at Suncoast Credit Union SwantoberFest Lakeland 2018 for your chance to become the 2018 Stein Hoisting Champion! ?Do some quick curls, then come on out and try your hardest to hold up a stein mug filled with delicious Oktoberfest beer the longest! ?The game is simple, how long can you hold a glass stein filled to the brim with liquid and held by a straight ninety degree (90°) arm in front of entrant, parallel to the floor with elbows locked. Once entrant’s elbow bends or spills or drops the stein, the entrant loses the contest. Longest time wins the contest.

Looking to partner up? Grab a friend and toss the bratwurst for the Brat Toss. Teams must complete a toss to-and-fro and catch the Brat in their bucket. Careful not to break it as you may end up tossing twice as much. The team that tosses the Brat the farthest distance wins!

The Chicken Dance is a competition for everybody and there will be plenty of opportunities to shake your tail feathers. Throughout the evening, make sure to join in the dance when you hear the song. Don’t worry about looking silly – that is the point! It is important to dance whenever you can to make sure your team has the most dancers by the songs end to win.

The children will not be left out! At Kinder Platz on Kentucky Avenue, competitions include Ein, Zwei, Drei… Halt! – also called the “Number Game” – is similar to “Red Light, Green Light.” The Koffer Packen game in English is “Packing a Suitcase” and is similar to a memory game. Finally, a Root Beer Stein Obstacle Race is a test of speed versus patience. How fast can you run around the obstacle course, both hands full of root beer, without spilling any precious root beer? Each racer will run the course holding two Steins full of root beer, one in each hand! Be careful not to spill any root beer because each ounce lost adds one second to your time!

The Lakeland Chamber is proud to announce Suncoast Credit Union as the title sponsor of Lakeland’s only Oktoberfest-themed celebration! Like a traditional Oktoberfest, our event will offer sights, sounds, and tastes that are Bavarian-inspired. Lakeland residents will have a chance to celebrate Octoberfest-style in Munn Park in downtown Lakeland on Saturday, September 22, 2018. The Suncoast Credit Union SwantoberFest is a time to unwind and make new friends, learn new customs and sing a few songs. Be there to help tap the inaugural keg at 5 PM on Saturday, September 22, as Lakeland’s Suncoast Credit Union SwantoberFest kicks off! This community-wide event in Munn Park will be free to attend and feature a business expo as an opportunity for Chamber member-investors to engage directly with the community in a family-friendly setting. Activities include German-style competitions, treasure hunt, and live music by The Europa Band. VIP passes will be available for an extra-special experience, including a Child’s VIP pass – think Root Beer Garden! To register as vendor-exhibitor at the event, please click here or at https://bit.ly/2JlSL0m. To learn more about the event, visit the website at SwantoberFest.com.

ABOUT SUNCOAST CREDIT UNION

Suncoast Credit Union is the largest credit union in the state of Florida, the eighth largest in the United States based on membership, and the 12th largest in the United States based on its more than $9.2 billion in assets. Chartered in 1934 as Hillsborough County Teachers Credit Union, Suncoast Credit Union currently operates 65 full-service branches and serves more than 785,000 members in the following Florida counties: Charlotte, Citrus, Collier, DeSoto, Dixie, Gilchrist, Glades, Hardee, Hendry, Hernando, Highlands, Hillsborough, Lee, Levy, Manatee, Marion, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk, Sarasota and Sumter. Since its founding in 1990, the Suncoast Credit Union Foundation has raised and donated more than $22 million to organizations and initiatives that support the health, education and emotional well-being of children in the communities that the credit union serves. For more information, visit: suncoastcreditunion.com, Facebook.com/SuncoastCreditUnion or @SuncoastCU

ABOUT THE LAKELAND CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

The Lakeland Chamber of Commerce represents 1,400-member businesses in the Lakeland area and provides opportunities for networking, professional development and advocacy for companies of all sizes. Five-star accredited by the US Chamber of Commerce, the Chamber upholds the following vision and mission statements: Vision Statement – The Lakeland Chamber of Commerce will be the premier catalyst for the advancement of Lakeland’s economic growth and enhancement of quality of life– creating Florida’s community of choice. Mission Statement – The Lakeland Chamber of Commerce is the leading organization dedicated to creating a climate where business can prosper.

The greatÂ Duct Tape Marketing blogÂ provides us with this week’s Marketing Mondays post. Â If you’ve been trying to figure out how to make facebook work for your business, consider utilizing the following:

1. Fan page – Facebook had personal profiles and groups from the start, but a few months ago they added to the function called fan pages and made them more business friendly. Any business on Facebook should create a fan page for their business and start optimizing additional content there. The cool thing about fan pages is that itâ€™s now a lot like having another web site. You can add applications, newsletter sign-up pages and events and promote them to your friends on Facebook. When someone becomes a fan of your page, your updates on the page show up on their wall giving additional exposure. I wrote a pretty comprehensive post on the subject ofÂ Facebook Fan Pages here. Also, check out the Duct Tape Marketing Fan Page -http://www.facebook.com/ducttapemarketing – note the brand optimized URL – thatâ€™s pretty new and something you should take advantage of.

2. Custom HTML – this oneâ€™s a little more technical but when you create a fan page you will see that your page comes with tabs for various categories of content you create (each tab has itâ€™s own URL so you can promote each section on your fan page around the web). Using the Facebook Mark-up Language (FBML) you can create custom boxes of HTML content, like newsletter sign-up pages, blog RSS feeds, and white paper downloads just like you might on your web site.Â FBML is a Facebook application you can get here. Iâ€™ve also done a quick little video showing you how to addÂ FBML custom HTML here.

3. Special content – Give your Facebook fans a little something extra they might not find on your blog or web site. Upload images from your PowerPoint presentations, articles from the local publication you contribute to, or on the fly videos created using the Facebook video application. Youâ€™re bound to find some crossover from other social networks like twitter, so give the Facebook users something unique. I know some people caution about reposting twitter here, but I think itâ€™s perfectly fine. I get lots of comments from people who just happen to like to use Facebook more than twitter and this way they still get updates.

4. Events, videos and apps – Use the heck out of all of the Facebook applications. (Hereâ€™s a post I did some time ago aboutsome of the best Facebook business applications, many of which are now compatible with pages.) Promote events, upload or record video, hold contests and polls. All of this extra engagement is so easy to do using pre-built tools. And donâ€™t forget to integrate your Facebook activity back to your web site and blog using a Facebook Fan Box – I wrote about theÂ Facebook FanBox tool here.

5. Ads for awareness – I think that Facebook has built one of the better ad targeting tools going. You can target ads to Facebook members on all kinds of criteria and run pretty low cost campaigns. The trick though is to run campaigns that are compelling and promote your FaceBook Fan Page instead of trying to sell something. Promote your white paper, events, and educational content – create awareness about your great content and your will get the chance to earn the trust it takes to actually sell something to someone. Hereâ€™s where you go to find more info aboutÂ Facebook Ads. And, I wrote aboutÂ using Facebook ads to create awareness here.

Even if you don’t sell anything online or provide support via email, you need to include social media in your marketing plan. Â If you have any questions about using facebook or other social media tools for your local business, you can email Matthew Wengerd.

(Lakeland, Fla., April 27, 2009) â€“ â€œThey wanted a sequel, so weâ€™re giving it to them,â€ says Tamara Sakagawa. â€œWe plan to provide some free, valuable information so people can use social media to grow, sustain or manage their businesses.â€

Sakagawa and Chuck Welch will present a social media seminar April 29, 11:00 a.m. â€“ noon and 6:00 â€“ 7:00 p.m. at the University of South Florida Polytechnic. Sakagawa is the City of Lakelandâ€™s community redevelopment agency manager, and Welch publishes two popular news sites, Lakeland Local and Metro I-4.

The workshop is part two of Welchâ€™s social media presentation that the Lakeland Community Redevelopment Agency hosted in March.

â€œLast month was why.â€™ This month is â€˜how,â€™â€ says Welch. â€œIt’s a quick, hands-on class for those committed to social media.â€

According to Sakagawa, USF Polyâ€™s Open Use Computer Lab provides an ideal location for the workshop.

â€œThis event is really more useful to people if they can work along with the instructor.Â Â I had originally thought of making this a bring-your-own-laptop event, but that just seemed cumbersome.Â â€œ

In addition to making its computer lab available for the workshop, USFP has plunged into the world of social media. The school has a presence on Facebook and recently launched a successful marketing campaign to increase its followers on Twitter.

Sakagawa first experimented with social media last year when she opened a Facebook account. She started to wonder how it and other forms of social media could help small businesses with limited marketing budgets.Â She originally planned the first workshop for Dixieland Community Redevelopment Area businesses.Â Because the topics are so universal, she says, she opened the event to anyone in the community, with a specific focus on small business owners.

Sakagawa uses each event as an opportunity to share some information about the city, the Dixieland CRA and the Redevelopment Agency.Â She also sees it as a networking opportunity for businesses and citizens, who, she hopes, will decide to locate or shop in, or learn more about, Dixieland.

â€œI see these seminars as civic engagement and customer service,â€ she says.â€ â€œWe need to communicate with our citizens about what we do, how we do it, and why things happen.Â These events give us a chance to not only share some insight into whatâ€™s going on but also get feedback from the public. We want to know what people and businesses need, how we can help, what services have value.Â Each event gives us an opportunity to learn more about what we can do, or do differently, to stimulate investment and keep the local economy churning.â€

According to Sakagawa, the Dixieland CRAâ€™s Facebook page and a new downtown website — plandowntownlakeland.com — have helped to engage a different segment of the public. Previous forms of outreach included direct mail, addressed primarily to property owners, news releases and legal ads.

â€œWe would always see the same people at public meetings, and we would wonder how to connect with younger people or people who could not, or would not, take time out of their days to come to a meeting or workshop. The website and blog let us share concepts with an online audience and get additional and frank feedback as we update the plan for downtown Lakeland.Â Facebook has allowed us to share information with a different audience, one we hope will stop and think about the businesses in this area.â€